WASHINGTON — With the Bushes preparing to stand down from a quarter century in top elected offices, a frenzied competition has erupted in the Republican Party over who will inherit a fundraising and vote-getting machine built by the family over the years into one of the most valuable assets in modern politics.
At stake is access to an elaborate national network of corporate givers, campaign strategists and grass-roots volunteers who have repeatedly propelled the Bushes to victory -- a network that could now give a new contender the inside track to winning the GOP's 2008 presidential nomination.
The leading potential heirs to that political fortune so far are Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), a onetime rival to the current President Bush and presumed front-runner for the nomination, and, a bit surprisingly, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has emerged as a top-tier contender by wooing social conservatives considered crucial in the early primary contests.
Adding to the drama, a sibling divide appears to be emerging among aides closest to President Bush and his brother, outgoing Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. Some key members of Gov. Bush's tight-knit inner circle have signed up to help Romney, while several of President Bush's senior strategists have gone to McCain. They include the media advisor and political director for the president's 2004 campaign.
The fight for the Bush family mantle demonstrates that, even after the plunge in the president's popularity and the GOP's thumping in the midterm election, the family network remains the single most powerful force in Republican Party politics.
It is a machine born four decades ago, when Barbara and George H.W. Bush moved to Texas and began to build a political life -- meticulously filling index cards with names of possible supporters and dutifully sending out Christmas greetings each year. Far from that simple, mid-20th century approach, today's GOP relies on a broad database of backers across the country whose relationships have been nurtured by generations of Bushes.
From the family's West Texas oil fortunes and Wall Street connections half a century ago, the network has grown to include the big-money fundraisers, dubbed "pioneers" and "rangers," who helped George W. Bush raise more than $500 million for his two presidential campaigns.
